Running head: IS THE FUTURE RIGHT? Temporal-Spatial Relations: Is the Future the Right Path?

Oliver Nasht ID: 310273986 Tutorial time: Wednesday 4p.m. University of Sydney

IS THE FUTURE RIGHT?

Abstract The present study explored the metaphorical mapping theory of time and space. In this case it was hypothesised that on a mental horizontal plane, the future would be mapped to the right and the past perceived as stretching to the left. 458 undergraduate Psychology students from the University of Sydney undertook an experiment measuring their accuracy in matching corresponding words relating to time, days of the week, numbers and planets. Although a time-space correlation was not found, the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect was significant in all other conditions. This suggests that the past and future are not necessarily perceived as being plotted on the left or to the right respectively. However, it does support the SNARC theory, which can also be extended to the days of the week and the sequential order of planets.

IS THE FUTURE RIGHT?

Temporal-Spatial Relations: Is the Future the Right Path? For years Psychologists have argued that there are significant inter-relationships in the perception of time, number and space. In several languages, perhaps all (Radden, 2004), it is common to conceptualise time as a spatial metaphor, specifically: Time is movement along a path (Santiago et al., 2007). Expressions such as Ill see you in the coming week and Back when I was young plot time on a linear path, relating to a backward-past and frontal-future association. Research has supported the back-front spatial notion, with a tendency for participants to respond faster to past words being presented on the back of an object and vice versa for future words (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999). Recently, a left-past and right-future congruency effect has been observed. Nunez and Sweetser (2006) concluded that when we speak of the future we often gesture to the right and conversely to the left when making references to the past. This was further investigated in other studies where participants were found to give left-past and right-future manual responses to visual stimuli (Torralbo et al., 2006; Santiago et al., 2007). To provide an alternative to the visuo-motor coded response, there have been similar tests taken with stimuli being delivered through audition instead. Spanish speakers responded to past auditory cues with their left hand and future cues with their right hand, whilst Hebrew speakers responded in the opposite way (Ouellet et al., 2009). Results such as these corroborate with another related theory: that the habitual direction of reading and writing (e.g. left to right for Spanish speakers and vice versa for Hebrew speakers) is a significant contributor to the perception of time in relation to space (Chokron De Agnostini 2000, Nachson et al., 1999). Whilst previous research designs have been notably explicit in their presentation participants are often directly asked if stimuli were to

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do with the past or future (Santiago et al., 2007) the present study aimed to support this metaphoric mapping theory whilst exposing participants to a less salient procedure. The present study hypothesised that participants would make fewer errors when presented with left-past and right-future associations than with left-future and right-past associations and more importantly that these differences would be statistically significant. For comparison, other ordinal conditions were included: Days of the week (DOW), numbers and a wildcard (planets), which were all predicted to have a noticeable Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect1. Method Participants The study involved 458 undergraduate Psychology students from the University of Sydney, the majority of which (303) were female. The mean age was 19.64. Participant nationality was diverse but all of them were native English speakers and right handed. Student participation was compulsory, the incentive being completion of a compulsory unit. Materials The DMDX display software (Forster & Forster, 2003) was used to create a random order of critical stimuli for each individual participant and to record responses for every trial. The stimuli were presented in white 12 pt Courier font against a black background. Procedure Participants were presented with a word in upper case relating to the past or future, days of the week (Monday-Friday), numbers (One-Nine) or planets (Mars-Earth). Table 1 in
1

An association between small numbers with left space and high numbers with right

space (Dehaene et al., 1993).

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the WebCT appendix shows the design and list of critical stimuli. A 500ms gap would follow and then two words from the aforementioned stimuli would be shown in lowercase side-by-side, remaining on the screen until a response was recorded. After this, another 500ms gap would occur before the participant was presented with the next upper case word (see Figure 1 in WebCT appendix). They were instructed to decide if the two lower case words corresponded correctly to the previously displayed upper case word. Students were told to push the left key on the keyboard if the same word appeared on the left or the right key if it appeared on the right. Each condition was repeated 3 times and not including the 10 practice trials, each participant had to complete a total of 48 trials. Results The main objective was to find evidence supporting the theory that the past and future are perceived as being on the left and right of a horizontal plane respectively. We predicted that there would be a significant difference in the percentage of left and right hand errors for the Past/Future condition. However, the results (p = > 0.5) did not support the hypothesis, suggesting there is only a small bias for the congruent response. However, all other conditions showed a statistically significant result. A congruent effect was observed for the numerical (p = < 0.5) and DOW conditions (p = < 0.5). Most surprisingly were the results for the Planets condition, with a great difference between left and right hand errors (p = 0.0004). See results table on WebCT for more detailed data. Discussion The results for the temporal-spatial stimuli seem to be in direct contrast with findings reported in preceding studies. This implies that predicting human perception of the past as stretching to the left and the future as stretching to the right is not necessarily evident. Perhaps these results were not in line with previous research because cultural influence was not taken into consideration. Although all participants were native English

IS THE FUTURE RIGHT? speakers, they consisted of students with mixed nationalities. Ouellet, Santiago, Israeli & Gabay (2009) stressed the importance of maintaining control over the cultural background of participants since the facilitation effect obtained in a culture can take the opposite shape in another.

The topic clearly requires further investigation and later research should seek to separate the possible cultural influence from skewing results. It has been noted that the SNARC effect is significantly reduced with bilingual participants from cultures with opposing reading-writing direction (Dehaene et al.,, 1993) and that this impact can be reversed when only monolingual subjects are used (Zebian, 2005). In future experiments, participants should be put into two groups of monolinguals (each one corresponding to a different reading-writing direction culture) and one group of bilinguals. From this study at least, it could be surmised that since time can be expressed in several metaphorical ways that there is not necessarily a left-right perception. Aymara natives speak and gesture as if time is located behind when referring to the future and vice versa for the past (Nunez & Sweetser, 2006). English and Indonesians employ the time as distance metaphor, whilst Greeks and Spanish view time as quantity (Casasanto et al., 2004). Interestingly, Mandarin speaking participants respond faster to temporal questions when primed by vertical as opposed to horizontal display tasks, yet there was no correlation in them perceiving time as being upwards or downwards (Boroditsky, 2001). Another problem could have been semantic satiation, a process where word meaning is lost through repetition (Smith & Klein, 1990). To reduce the influence of this issue a larger selection of words should be included. All other conditions were in line with the hypothesis. There is a clear SNARC effect in words that have ordinal associations such as numbers and DOW. On a horizontal plane it can be concluded that we perceive the number One in a similar way to the word Monday. More research must be undertaken to draw a sound conclusion on the significant bias in the Planets condition. However, it could be argued that since all participants would have knowledge of how to map the solar system in a sequential

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order that Earth is placed on the left and Mars on the right since the Sun is the centre or starting reference (like the word Zero). Or it may simply be because Mars is perceived to be a greater distance away and thus, like a larger number, is associated with being placed on the right. Overall, the results do not contribute to a further understanding of perceiving time as stretching significantly to the left or right. Since time can be expressed metaphorically in several ways, a left-right congruency is not necessarily the most prevalent means of abstract reasoning. However, the study does support the SNARC theory, which can be applied to DOW and even Planets. References Casasanto, D. B., Lera; Phillips, Webb; Greene, Jesse; Goswami, Shima; BocanegraThiel, Simon; Santiago-Diaz, Ilia; Fotokopolou, Olga; Pita, Ria; Gil, David (2004). How Deep Are Effects of language on Thought? Time Estimation in Speakers of English, Indonesian, Greek and Spanish. Proceedings of the 26th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Chicago, Il., Lawrence Erlbaum. Chokron, S. and M. De Agostini (2000). "Reading habits influence aesthetic preference." Cognitive Brain Research 10(1-2): 45-49. Dehaene, S., S. Bossini, et al. (1993). "The Mental Representation of Parity and Number Magnitude." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 122(3): 371-396. Forster, K. I., & Forster, J. C. (2003). Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers. 35, 116-124. Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. New York, Basic Books. Nachson, I., E. Argaman, et al. (1999). "Effects of Directional Habits and Handedness on Aesthetic Preference for Left and Right Profiles." Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 30(1): 106-114. Nez, R. and E. Sweetser (2006). "With the Future Behind Them: Convergent

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Evidence From Aymara Language and Gesture in the Crosslinguistic Comparison of Spatial Construals of Time." Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal 30(3): 401-450. Ouellet, M., J. Santiago, et al. (2010). "Thinking About the Future Moves Attention to the Right." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 36(1): 17-24. Ouellet, M., J. Santiago, et al. (2010). "Is the future the right time?" Experimental psychology 57(4): 308-314. Radden, G. (2004). The metaphor time as space across languages. N.Baumgarten et al. (Eds.), bersetzen, interkulturelle Kommunikation, Spracherwerb und SprachvermittlungDas Leben mit Mehreren Sprachen: Festschrift fr Juliane House zum 60. Geburtstag (pp.225- 238). Bochum: Aksverlag. Santiago, J., J. Lupiez, et al. (2007). "Time (also) flies from left to right." Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 14(3): 512-516. Smith, L. and R. Klein (1990). "Evidence for Semantic Satiation: Repeating a Category Slows Subsequent Semantic Processing." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 16(5): 852-861. Torralbo, A., J. Santiago, et al. (2006). "Flexible Conceptual Projection of Time Onto Spatial Frames of Reference." Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal 30(4): 745-757. Zebian, S. (2005). "Linkages between Number Concepts, Spatial Thinking, and Directionality of Writing: The SNARC Effect and the REVERSE SNARC Effect in English and Arabic Monoliterates, Biliterates, and Illiterate Arabic Speakers." Journal of Cognition and Culture 5: 165-190.

IS THE FUTURE RIGHT?